


the nights

by stuttervoice



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: M/M, they're normal what can I say, written for wysv2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-10-04 23:54:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10292768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stuttervoice/pseuds/stuttervoice
Summary: For the past four years, Kuroko Tetsuya has been the only person to live on the top floor of his apartment building.That changes when his new red-haired neighbor moves in.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I have nothing to say except that self-teaching yourself to play the keyboard is hard and I don't know what I'm doing

Tetsuya has lived in this small, humble apartment for four long years now, and he’s enjoyed his simple life. He may not enjoy waking up at dawn almost every day, but he does love commuting to the kindergarten and greeting his students as they come in, receiving warm, cheery words in return. He loves teaching them, loves looking after them, loves seeing them off to their parents. He is incredibly grateful for being able to finish work and be called by friends, invited out for a relaxing evening. He even enjoys staying up late and grading his students’ work and creating new things to do every day.

He does not enjoy the sound of people moving things outside his door at five in the morning.

It must have been a mere three hours or less since Tetsuya fell asleep; he’d been so busy that he wasn’t able to sleep until two. He lifts his head groggily and stares at the door for a long, long moment.

The noise continues.

Irritated, Tetsuya pushes the covers off of himself and grabs his sweater that was hanging on the back of his nearby desk chair. He punches his arm down in hopes of sliding it on, but his arm misses entirely, and the momentum nearly tips him over in his exhausted state. Sighing to himself, he fumbles for a minute, trying to slip his sweater on. After a couple more misses, he manages to finally slide it on, and he closes the front of it, hobbling to his door. He’s cold, tired, and very, very annoyed—a terrible mixture on anyone.

He opens his door slowly; the only thing holding him back from slamming it open are his manners, which are somehow intact despite his state of mind. When he pokes his head outside, he notices what look to be movers carrying things into the apartment next to him. He blinks in surprise. In all his years of living here, for some odd reason, no one has ever moved into the apartment next to him, which is the only other one on the floor.

“Ah, my apologies. Did we wake you?”

Tetsuya is caught off-guard, but he conceals it well, looking in the direction of the voice. A well-dressed man is standing against the railing opposite the wall, crimson hair muted in the darkness before dawn. And yet.

And yet blood red eyes glow as they seem to dissect Tetsuya from head-to-toe.

Tetsuya subtly tries to wrap himself even tighter in his sweater.

The uncomfortable feeling passes as quickly as it came as the man’s eyes move up to meet Tetsuya’s again, waiting for his answer. Feeling relieved and a little winded, as if he’d just run a marathon, Tetsuya finds the will to reply. “Yes, you did.” Blunt. It isn’t as if lying to him will do anything. The other man seems like he would know if Tetsuya was lying or not.

The man seems briefly amused by his answer, but his expression neutralizes just as fast. “I see. I apologize again; I wanted to move in as soon as possible, but I had hoped that my new neighbor would be a deep sleeper or not home,” the man explains, tipping his head slightly as an apologetic gesture. Tetsuya is, honestly, ready to retreat back into his apartment and pretend this never happened, but the man has different plans. He pushes himself off the railing and approaches Tetsuya, offering him his hand. Tetsuya eyes it warily. “I believe we got off on the wrong foot. My name is Akashi Seijuurou, and I’ve just moved in next door. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He punctuates his statement with a charming smile, but Tetsuya is utterly unfazed. It’s five in the morning, and the hours before dawn have no place for attractive men. At least, in Tetsuya’s opinion, that is.

Tetsuya shakes his hand, but only briefly. His expression is blank. “My name is Kuroko Tetsuya. I’m afraid I can’t say the same, but I hope you enjoy living here,” he deadpans. With that, he steps backward, and shuts the door in Akashi’s face.

As he makes his way back to bed, he swears he hears the other man chuckling, but he decides to forget he ever heard anything and falls face-down onto his creaky bed.

He’s sleeping just a moment later, and his dreams are, thankfully, free of any day-ruining redheads.

* * *

 

When Tetsuya wakes up a few hours later, head full of cotton and tiredness settled firmly into his bones, he completely forgets what happened before dawn and goes about his morning normally. He eats a slice of toast and a boiled egg and then washes up in the bathroom before dressing for the day. After that, he gathers all his supplies and his students’ work he’d taken home, and he leaves his apartment. Normally, he has a quiet walk down four flights of stairs and then an irritating time waiting for the bus and being pushed around by antsy commuters.

This is not normal.

A man with blazing red hair jogs toward Tetsuya, drenched in so much sweat it should be disgusting, and it is, but it seems considerably less disgusting than when Kagami or Aomine is drenched in sweat. Because he’s wearing a sleeveless shirt, Tetsuya is momentarily distracted by his surprisingly large arm muscles (why can’t _he_ have muscles like that), but his moment of being impressed ends when memories of earlier that morning come flooding back to him.

Akashi notices him and sends him a polite smile. “Good morning, Kuroko,” he greets, wiping some of the sweat off his face with a towel. Tetsuya won’t lie. He half-expects the sweat to come off sparkly.

Tetsuya decides he should at least be polite despite the other man ruining his morning. “Good morning, Akashi-san,” he says, simply. Tetsuya adjusts his grip on his bag. Akashi notices.

“Ah, are you on your way somewhere? Sorry, I won’t stop you. Have a safe trip,” Akashi steps to the side to let Tetsuya pass. Tetsuya’s shoulders loosen a little. Akashi doesn’t seem like a bad person.

Tetsuya smiles a little, bowing. “Thank you. I’ll be off now.” As Tetsuya passes by Akashi, he thinks the other’s eyes follow him to the stairs, but he dismisses the feeling.

* * *

 

“Oh, poor Tetsu-kun,” Momoi laughs lightly, hugging Tetsuya and patting his back. Tetsuya sighs a little; he’d told her what happened this morning, but unfortunately, she isn’t very sympathetic about it.

Having finished work at the kindergarten for the day, Tetsuya had gone to meet Momoi for dinner as they’d planned a few days ago. When Momoi had asked him if anything had happened recently, he had decided to tell her about the morning’s events. She had seemed highly amused the entire time.

“Momoi-san,” Tetsuya sighs, as they break apart and head into the restaurant, “please be more sympathetic to me.”

Momoi giggles, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. They’re seated before she answers him, smiling brightly in the way that makes Tetsuya relax. “Well, I do feel bad for you since I know you don’t get enough rest, but he did apologize,” she points out, picking up her menu and flipping through it. Tetsuya mimics her, a small crease in his eyebrows.

“He… did…” He mutters under his breath, reluctant to say it. Momoi giggles, winking at Tetsuya.

“He’s your first neighbor, Tetsu-kun. Try not to butt heads with him too much, okay?”

Well, Momoi has a point, as always. Tetsuya had already known on this, but… Well, if Momoi asks him, then he has to do it. He sighs lightly, smiling a little at Momoi.

“I will. Thank you, Momoi-san.”

Momoi laughs. “Anything for you, Tetsu-kun.”

Tetsuya looks down at his menu, smiling softly.

* * *

 

Tetsuya realizes that he hardly sees Akashi around, and when Tetsuya is home, Akashi generally isn’t. While Tetsuya has no idea what the other man does, he thinks it’s probably a well-paying job. From what Tetsuya can remember of the morning Akashi moved in, he seemed to have a lot of high-quality furniture.

Which begs the question, why move into such a low-end apartment building?

Well, it isn’t really any of his business.

One night, about a week after Akashi moved in, Tetsuya is up late. This time, he isn’t up late because of his work; rather, he’s practicing on the upright piano that barely fits into his apartment. Tomorrow afternoon, he was asked to give piano lessons to one of his students, so he decided to warm up and make sure he isn’t too rusty. He’s been so busy with his job that he hasn’t had time for playing the piano.

As he’s falling asleep to the soothing, peaceful music he’s playing, he hears the door to the apartment next to his open. He blinks lethargically, glancing at the alarm clock next to his bed. _3:14._ The numbers glow red, carving themselves into his vision.

_He gets home late._

The walls are extremely thin. Tetsuya stops playing the piano—his fingers had been barely touching the keys anyway. There’s a couple of muffled thuds, probably Akashi putting down a briefcase Tetsuya once spotted him with, and then another door opening and closing. About a minute passes before the pipes creak and a shower turns on.

Tetsuya leans back without tumbling off the bench.

Showers are perhaps the loudest and most obnoxious things in this complex, and it’s impossible to not be able to hear them through the walls.

Has Tetsuya just been sleeping through this, or is this the first time Akashi’s taken a shower at this time?

He doubts the latter.

He believes in the first.

Tetsuya, now wide awake because of the rumbling downpour from next door, decides to resume practicing. He unapologetically plays at _mezzoforte_ and perhaps even louder so he’s able to hear himself over the roar of the water.

Yes, it’s that loud.

Thankfully, Akashi finishes showering in fifteen minutes or less. Tetsuya resumes playing at a normal volume, arranging songs he’s heard lately for fun. He’s about to stop, not only because he’s tired and because he doesn’t want to keep Akashi awake with his playing, when he hears a creak of a chair and then the sound of a lamp turning on.

It sounds like Akashi is staying awake, too.

He’s not sure what compels him to, but he decides to keep playing. Akashi never comes to his door and asks him to stop, so he doesn’t.

He wonders why the night is so peaceful.

* * *

 

Tetsuya wakes the next morning with a low buzz in his ears and his cheek glued to something hard.

He winces, slowly lifting his head. His alarm is screeching, so he reaches out to hit the snooze button.

His hand hits something hard, and it isn’t his alarm.

Realizing something is amiss, Tetsuya opens his eyes, and the first thing he notices is the piano in front of him.

The second is that he fell asleep at the bench and not on his bed.

He groans quietly, his back protesting as he stretches his sore limbs. He’s definitely paying for his mistake, he can tell. He sluggishly stands, making his way over to his wailing alarm and shutting it off with a decisive chop of his hand. That done, he starts his morning routine, feeling like he’d barely slept at all.

At most, he’d gotten two hours of sleep, so it isn’t too far off.

It doesn’t take long to be on his way. As he’s adjusting his bag on his shoulder, he hears the sound of footsteps on the stairs, and soon enough, he’s face-to-face with Akashi.

…Who’s just returning from a run.

“Good morning, Kuroko,” he greets, not missing a beat. There aren’t any dark shadows under his eyes. As if noticing Tetsuya’s subtle examinations, Akashi wipes some sweat off his forehead and sends him what looks to be a small, tiny, miniscule…smirk. “You look tired. Are you alright? You shouldn’t stay up late if you have to leave this early in the morning,” he notes, voice absolutely polite and concerned.

Tetsuya practically feels the invisible vein on his forehead pop.

_I take back any nice thing I’ve ever thought about him._

“…Good morning, Akashi-san,” Tetsuya just barely manages, voice teetering on the line between neutrally polite and coldly irate. Before he can do something he regrets, he decides to leave it at that, brushing past Akashi to head for the stairs.

_A day-ruining person indeed._

* * *

 

Sure enough, he seethes over the man’s triumphantly snide comment for the rest of the day. In the first place, who stays up just as late, if not later, as Tetsuya did and wakes up _earlier_ and isn’t tired at all? What kind of superhuman does his neighbor think he is? And there wasn’t any need to comment on Tetsuya’s obvious inferiority. Unlike his neighbor, Tetsuya isn’t capable of only getting two hours of sleep and waking up looking like he just walked off a magazine cover.

Tetsuya sighs.

He’d managed to get through the piano lesson alright, at least. He really didn’t want any of his irritation to seep out when he was with his students, and it thankfully didn’t, since he has such good control on his outward emotions. Once he’s finished with the lesson, he’s so tired that he just wants to go home and sleep early.

So that’s exactly what he does.

He doesn’t even have to worry about running into Akashi because he knows he’s usually out at this time. He safely gets into his apartment without any interruptions and quickly finishes any leftover work he has. Once done, he takes a warm shower and then eats while his hair is drying. Kagami texts him and asks him if he wants to eat dinner with the guys and Momoi on Sunday night. Tetsuya texts him back an affirmative; having dinner with his friends should be very de-stressing.

After eating, Tetsuya sits at his table, staring at the wall. He wonders why Akashi gets onto his nerves so easily. While they didn’t have a great start to their acquaintanceship, he generally doesn’t dislike people this much. He supposes he _doesn’t_ dislike Akashi that much. However, the other man’s attitude rubs him the wrong way. He’s sure all that charm is fake. He prefers people to be real with him; he doesn’t like people who are fake.

He wonders if that makes him a hypocrite.

He decides to sleep, unsure of what to do with all these thoughts of Akashi. He just moved in, anyway, and Tetsuya doesn’t even know him that well. Why is he thinking of him so often?

He sighs, getting under the covers of his creaky bed.

He just wants to sleep.

* * *

 

Around four hours later, he wakes to the sound of music.

A violin, to be exact.

Tetsuya keeps his face buried in the blankets, just listening for a long moment. Whoever is playing is experienced; the way the violin sings tells him that. Tetsuya nearly falls back to sleep right away.

It has to be Akashi playing the violin.

Well, now he’s awake.

He sits up, staring at his wall with half-shut eyes. He realizes that Akashi is following the song pattern he was playing last night, and he isn’t missing a beat. In fact, he might be transitioning even smoother than Tetsuya did. He can only wish that he was that skillful at playing an instrument.

He sits there for a few more minutes, listening to Akashi play. Realizing that his fingers are itching to play the piano, Tetsuya sighs to himself, a small, wry smile on his lips. He supposes he isn’t sleeping for a while.

When he stands, the bed creaking under him, he thinks he hears Akashi stop for a split second. But then he’s playing again, and it could very well just be his imagination, so he shrugs it off and walks over to his piano.

Akashi changes the song, and it doesn’t match what Tetsuya played last night. Tetsuya tilts his head, listening—the song sounds somber, not as light as the other songs. Tetsuya blinks. Akashi continues playing.

It almost sounds like an apology.

Tetsuya looks down at the keys of his piano. Trying not to smile, he settles his fingers on the keys lightly.

A light jingle, like bells chiming.

Akashi pauses for a long moment, listening as Tetsuya plays it again. Akashi mimics the jingle perfectly. Tetsuya doesn’t feel that jealous.

_Maybe he isn’t so bad after all._

They play together, two different instruments singing in the dark of the night, until the world wakes.

* * *

 

It turns into a routine. Every night, they play together for at least an hour, and then they sleep. They never speak a word of it, so it could all be a dream that Tetsuya has every night, but.

But when Tetsuya sees Akashi in the morning, the other man has looked a lot warmer than when he first moved in.

He doesn’t think it’s a dream.

He won’t lie. He loves playing the piano, and he’s missed it, so being able to do this is one of the most enjoyable things he’s done in a while. While he does love his job and being with his friends, there’s something about playing the piano that makes him feel happy and fulfilled.

He probably wouldn’t have played the piano again after he finished his piano lessons with his student if not for Akashi.

Odd how the world works.

…Akashi himself is...special, Tetsuya realizes. 

One night, after he and Akashi finish playing together, Tetsuya is walking to his bed when he hears a quiet knock on the wall. Tetsuya pauses, deciding to knock back to let Akashi know he’s listening. He wonders if Akashi is going to ask him if he wants to practice face-to-face, or maybe if he wants to write a song with him—

“Dinner tomorrow night?”

Muffled, yet clear enough that Tetsuya knows he hasn’t misheard anything. Tetsuya stares at the wall.

That’s not what he expected. Is it what he wants?

It might not even be in that way. But the silence between them seems tense, and Tetsuya has a feeling Akashi is on-edge waiting for his answer.

He closes his eyes, leaning his forehead against the wall.

“What time?”

**Author's Note:**

> “Did you know that you’re the first person to move into the apartment next to mine since I first moved in?”  
> “Why, yes, I did.”  
> “Really?”  
> “Yes. Your neighbors are all convinced that there’s a ghost living in your apartment, and they tell that to all the people who plan to move into this complex, I think.”  
> “…I see.”  
> ***  
> laughs, do you italicize mezzoforte actually, idk  
> sorry, this fic is paced pretty oddly, but I did try my best...maybe I'm not good with normal settings


End file.
